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Military has Been Trained to Handle Friendly, Hostile Civilian Groups

Aired April 09, 2003 - 15:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go back to Colonel Mike Turner. Colonel Mike Turner, this question which Ryan Chilcote raised, what next, is of course the big question of the moment. And the other thing he brought out was how quickly the Iraqi resistance seemed to melt away. Is that perhaps deceiving?
COL. MIKE TURNER, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it could be, Miles, in isolated circumstances. You have to try and understand that the current situation -- I'll use analogy of a stoplight. Battle is the red light and that battle is still going on. We're staring at a red light right now essentially country-wide.

But at some point we'll try to move to a green light status where we have the principal mission will be to establish order and to try to hold chaos to a minimum and begin to build the civilian infrastructure that we'll need for the interim government.

What's critical is to go from a red line to green light in isolated circumstances, passing through that yellow light phase, if you will. That transition phase as quickly as possible because that's a very dangerous phase.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now our Martin Savidge found a red light at the University of Baghdad. Let's zoom in on our satellite imagery on Baghdad and show you what that location, and give you a sense of some of the action he saw.

It's right here on this little peninsula where the Tigris River kind of does a little bend there south of Baghdad. Two blocks prior they were getting roses or flowers placed on the armor. And then they go into this campus, they skirt this campus and all of a sudden they're in a terrible firefight, which we'll show you some pictures of right now. What does that tell you? What's the lesson there, Colonel Turner?

TURNER: Well the lesson for the troops is they have to be very careful because it's easy when you are met by those crowds to let your guard down and think this is a more secure area than perhaps it is. And you can turn a corner and run right into the firefight they had in the university.

I'm sure these troops have been briefed extensively on precisely this situation and that Centcom has some very precise plans on for how to deal with this. But this is very dangerous because now you have largely uncontrolled civilian population jubilant that are moving through the city. And yet there are still a raging, very difficult battle in isolated areas that can flow into those civilian populations. And so we have to be careful about how we do this and try and get through that transitory phase just as fast as we can.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's move up the Tigris River and go to Firdos (ph) square where we saw a lot of that jubilation.

And I'm curious. I was watching that today and I've got to admit my reaction was, looking at that crowd up on top of that piece of armor there, oh, my goodness, I hope they don't let their guard down. Precisely what you are talking about.

What -- you know, you can tell troops to watch it, but they can easily get swept away by the moment. Is that a concern of yours as well?

TURNER: I think it's a concern of everyone's. This is where you move from a pure military operation into a political military operation and things can get fuzzy very quickly here. The commanders and the field units are very, very well versed in how to do this. They are trained in how to work with civilian populations at the Joint Readiness Training Center.

And I've seen e-mail directly from a tank commander in Baghdad who was saying JRTC is in fact a template to follow here in working with these civilian populations. So they've had a lot of training...

O'BRIEN: JRTC is?

TURNER: Joint Readiness Training Center. They're trained in these -- precisely in these kind of scenarios. And so they're prepared for it, but you're absolutely right, it's very easy to be caught off guard in these kind of situations.

O'BRIEN: All right. Colonel Mike Turner, thanks very much. Appreciate your insights.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Civilian Groups>


Aired April 9, 2003 - 15:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go back to Colonel Mike Turner. Colonel Mike Turner, this question which Ryan Chilcote raised, what next, is of course the big question of the moment. And the other thing he brought out was how quickly the Iraqi resistance seemed to melt away. Is that perhaps deceiving?
COL. MIKE TURNER, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it could be, Miles, in isolated circumstances. You have to try and understand that the current situation -- I'll use analogy of a stoplight. Battle is the red light and that battle is still going on. We're staring at a red light right now essentially country-wide.

But at some point we'll try to move to a green light status where we have the principal mission will be to establish order and to try to hold chaos to a minimum and begin to build the civilian infrastructure that we'll need for the interim government.

What's critical is to go from a red line to green light in isolated circumstances, passing through that yellow light phase, if you will. That transition phase as quickly as possible because that's a very dangerous phase.

O'BRIEN: All right. Now our Martin Savidge found a red light at the University of Baghdad. Let's zoom in on our satellite imagery on Baghdad and show you what that location, and give you a sense of some of the action he saw.

It's right here on this little peninsula where the Tigris River kind of does a little bend there south of Baghdad. Two blocks prior they were getting roses or flowers placed on the armor. And then they go into this campus, they skirt this campus and all of a sudden they're in a terrible firefight, which we'll show you some pictures of right now. What does that tell you? What's the lesson there, Colonel Turner?

TURNER: Well the lesson for the troops is they have to be very careful because it's easy when you are met by those crowds to let your guard down and think this is a more secure area than perhaps it is. And you can turn a corner and run right into the firefight they had in the university.

I'm sure these troops have been briefed extensively on precisely this situation and that Centcom has some very precise plans on for how to deal with this. But this is very dangerous because now you have largely uncontrolled civilian population jubilant that are moving through the city. And yet there are still a raging, very difficult battle in isolated areas that can flow into those civilian populations. And so we have to be careful about how we do this and try and get through that transitory phase just as fast as we can.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's move up the Tigris River and go to Firdos (ph) square where we saw a lot of that jubilation.

And I'm curious. I was watching that today and I've got to admit my reaction was, looking at that crowd up on top of that piece of armor there, oh, my goodness, I hope they don't let their guard down. Precisely what you are talking about.

What -- you know, you can tell troops to watch it, but they can easily get swept away by the moment. Is that a concern of yours as well?

TURNER: I think it's a concern of everyone's. This is where you move from a pure military operation into a political military operation and things can get fuzzy very quickly here. The commanders and the field units are very, very well versed in how to do this. They are trained in how to work with civilian populations at the Joint Readiness Training Center.

And I've seen e-mail directly from a tank commander in Baghdad who was saying JRTC is in fact a template to follow here in working with these civilian populations. So they've had a lot of training...

O'BRIEN: JRTC is?

TURNER: Joint Readiness Training Center. They're trained in these -- precisely in these kind of scenarios. And so they're prepared for it, but you're absolutely right, it's very easy to be caught off guard in these kind of situations.

O'BRIEN: All right. Colonel Mike Turner, thanks very much. Appreciate your insights.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Civilian Groups>